Lewy, Hang On

Saturday was a difficult day for Lewy. He was hallucinating when I got up and went to check on him first thing in the morning, and the hallucinations continued throughout the morning. Normally Lewy sleeps but today he was straining to hold onto the bed rails. He kept saying he had to hold onto them or they would fall off.

Hubbie and I rolled him onto his back thinking maybe that would stop the vise grip on the rails. Indeed it did for a while. Instead of the rails Lewy started pulling off his bed gown and the covers, exposing his naked body.

I kept trying to cover him back up, and he would keep pulling them off. Hubbie took the gown and wadded up in Lewy’s hands thinking that would give him something to grab onto – hopefully then the covers would stay on.

This worked for a bout 5 minutes then Lewy was twisting the gown into the covers and rolling them up like a giant cigar. He kept complaining of pain, but we couldn’t figure out where, so I gave him the pain medication, later some anti –anxiety pill, then an anti spasm drug, nothing was working to settle him down.

I don’t know why I thought perhaps he is just cold and is not able to figure it out, so I put the electric blanket on him and turned it on high. At first he was trying to throw it off but in a few minutes settled down to just clinching his fists on the railings. Enough time had elapsed that I could give him some more meds to calm him down. After a while, this round of drugs settled him into a tortured sleep of straining to hang on to something.

As for me, I had to remove and replace the wound sponge and pump device on his left foot. It certainly does not look nice and neat the way the nurses do it, but the suction is working and the alarm finally quit going off. It only took about an hour to get myself together to jump in there and find the stuff and force myself to do it. It wasn’t so bad…

But I gotta say, the diarrhea is really tough. First of all it takes both of us to roll him about to clean him. I’m just learning this layering of pads and sheet rolling techniques. And I have to go through a mental checklist of things required to do the job. You have to have everything ready to go. So for each bowel movement, its not just Daddy to clean, but 2 pee pads, a sheet, probably a blanket and definitely his gown. Two extra loads of the nastiest laundry you can imagine everyday. Actually four loads, because I have to run them through twice.

Lewy has begun to refuse food. He thinks we are trying to kill him. I can deal with Lewy thinking I’m doing mean things behind his back, but it hurts when you see and hear it come out of your Dad’s mouth; especially right after you’ve cleaned his butt.


1 comments:

pearose said...
Caregiving for dementia patients is the toughest job in the world.

Typically, dementia patients do remove their clothes or anything that is touching their skin. As you both know, aging skin becomes thin which decreases the ability to regulate heat/cold. It also becomes more sensitive to pressure created by the weight of clothes, blankets or any other material. The lack of ability to rationalize the weighted material, with the damage being done to the brain stem (the location of basic fear in the brain) and other brain areas adds to their need to 'get it off.' Apparently, Tweak's presence has not become a bother on his skin ... yet.

Research CLEARLY shows that the attention given by a dog or cat to an ill person, especially the elderly, adds tremendous value to their lives. The ability to love and be loved unconditionally is as good as it gets. I'm so glad Tweak and Lewy are buddies. I'd rather have my own fingernails dug out than do that to my own dogs, but you make a great case - Lewy and Tweak need each other and the claws would create a major wound problem.

Besides, mine are way too big to jump in my lap, unless I'm sleeping. Then, body slamming me to get a really close sleeping position seems acceptable - to them only. My sore ribs....